Posts Tagged ‘Surviving with Wolves’

This posting is not about Upstate New York Genealogy in particular, but emphasizes why it is so important to have totally open records access. Our recent discussions about the New York State Vital Records has created quite a lot of interest in how to access Birth, Death and Marriage Records in NYS, and this announcement from our friend, Sharon Sergeant in Massachusetts details how some open records allowed herself and some other genealogists, historians and detectives to uncover an International fraud.

Sharon Sergeant will speak about how she cracked a hoax at the MassachusettsGenealogical Council Seminar on April 26 at noon, at the LaCava Center,Bentley College, Waltham, MA. Sergeant is the genealogist who uncovered thetwenty-year multinational fraud by Misha Defonseca, author of “Misha: AMémoire of the Holocaust Years” and “Surviving with Wolves”, aninternational bestseller and the subject of a French feature film,

The European press was rocked when, on February 28, the beloved authorconfessed that her story, translated into eighteen languages, was a fraud. Theauthor had claimed to be a Jewish “hidden child” who had lost her identityin the Holocaust.

“The international scope of this case underscores the need for open recordsavailable to the public for inspection. Without this right, researchers arenot able to protect the public from frauds of this type,” according toBarbara Mathews, CG, President of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council.

Defonseca’s native Belgium closed vital records in 1955. When open records inMassachusetts provided new information, they pointed a pathway to Belgianrecords that were not sealed. When the combined records showed the fraud,Belgian officials decided to release additional sealed documents.

“Once we began releasing the records we had found, the Belgian press took itfrom there. Within days of receiving the correct name, date and place of birthof the real Monique De Wael, journalists contacted several people whoremembered Monique well.” The author wasn’t Jewish and had spent herchildhood in Belgium, not wandering across Europe, witnessing the historictragedies of other people’s lives, as she had claimed.

“She had no choice but to confess,” says Sergeant. “There was a solidtrail of who she really was.” The documents included a baptismal record andfirst grade registration with De Wael’s first husband’s sister, unearthedthrough the efforts of Sergeant and her team.

“The genealogical methods used are the same techniques that can be used touncover other frauds or solve every day mysteries in anyone’s familyhistory,” Sergeant explains. “We were guided by a photo time line,verified by photo detective Maureen Taylor of Norwood, Massachusetts andCalifornia based forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick. We worked with realJewish hidden children. The internet allowed us to work quickly with people onthe ground in Belgium and access the records in public libraries andarchives.”

Among the many other speakers at the Conference who will be discussinggenealogical tools and methods are Joshua Taylor and Michael Leclerc from theNew England Historic and Genealogical Society; and Michael Brophy and BernardCouming from the Massachusetts Genealogical Council.

The Annual Conference is an all day event sponsored by The MassachusettsGenealogical Council and is open to the public. The registration cost of $75includes a continental breakfast and luncheon buffet. Registration forms forthe presentation are available at the Massachusetts Genealogical Council’swebsite: www.massgencouncil.com.